Wee knew the shop never closed on a Monday.
It never had .... not once in all these years.
But the world had changed.
As she and Lamai walked closer to home,
the street unfolded into a sight she could never have imagined ....
furniture scattered outside, things thrown around like they no longer belonged to anyone.
From inside came voices ..... shouting, crying ....chaos that felt wrong, unnatural.
Wee froze when she saw the police cars parked out front,
their flashing lights cutting through the morning haze.
But Lamai didn't stop.
She was already at the door.
And the moment she stepped inside,
what she saw shattered every ounce of sense and hope left within her.
Her mother, Mian, was screaming, her voice raw ..
"This isn't true! They're lying! All of it!"
But what the police had shown her was more than enough to erase denial.
It was the truth ..... the real one.
Wee stood outside, her heart sinking, her breath trembling.
Lamai had already gone in.
How could she face them?
What could she possibly say now?
What comfort could she offer ..
when the one who needed comfort most… was her?
---
When Wee finally stepped inside,
the ground beneath her seemed to vanish.
The room was full of officers, silent, grim.
One of them was holding a phone, its screen glowing faintly.
On it, a video was playing.
Wee could see Lamai standing near the window, frozen in disbelief.
Her parents were trying to hold Mian, who was trembling violently.
And then, Bai Yin emerged from Jain's room,
his expression unreadable.
He took the phone from his officer's hand .....
the phone that had just been unlocked.
The air grew heavier.
Even Mian's cries died down into silence.
Wee stepped closer to Yen, who turned and gasped softly ....
Wee, the girl who had just returned from the institute,
looked like a ghost.
Yen gently touched her face, wordless, helpless.
Then Bai Yin's eyes widened.
He had found it.
A video.
The one that changed everything.
It was the video Jain had hidden for years ....
the one he had searched desperately for the day the truth started unraveling.
He thought it was gone forever.
But Bai Yin's search had uncovered it.
And after watching it ....
after seeing what it held .....
he knew what had to be done.
---
Bai Yin stepped forward, a heavy weight dragging at his chest.
He stopped before Mian, Yen, and Yen's husband.
Wee and Lamai stood just behind them.
He let out a long, quiet breath,
then handed the phone to Mian.
Their eyes met for a second.
And in that silence, Mian already knew ...
her heart recognized the truth before her mind allowed it to.
The video began to play.
---
It was the day Mevi was killed.
Every moment, every scream,
every horror ..... recorded through that phone's lens.
Jain himself had filmed it.
He had hidden the device to capture his own disgusting act ....
but instead, it captured his crime.
It showed everything.
How Lu tried desperately to save Mevi,
how he fought, begged,
and how Jain, in his rage and madness,
had strangled her with his own hands.
---
The room fell silent.
Like a graveyard.
Even surrounded by so many people,
the house felt empty ..... hollow ..... as if all air had been pulled out.
Yen released Mian's hand.
Her husband staggered backward, tripping over a chair and falling to the floor.
Lamai sank down slowly, her legs giving out,
as if her body had accepted mourning before her mind did.
Wee stood frozen,
unable to believe the world she was seeing.
The pieces of their lives .... shattered like glass .....
beyond repair.
Mian understood now.
Her son would never return home again.
And Wee's father ...
he finally realized that Lu had been innocent all along.
But the truth had come too late.
Nothing could change what had already been lost.
He had already buried his daughter, Mevi.
And now, in this heavy silence,
he felt the ache of losing Lu too.
The weight of regret ...
a mountain pressing down on his chest .....
left him staring blankly into the void,
searching for a breath that would never come.